History Through Video Games There are a great number of outstanding sources that can teach you lessons. Below is a list of many opportunities that I provide for extra credit broken down by category. Finish the game you want to write about, take a picture of yourself in front of the TV when the end screen is on the TV, and then organize a writing about your experience.

1. The Assassin’s Creed games a. Tons of historical artifacts and accuracies with real people. The idea of Templars vs.

Assassin’s is untrue, but the environments are created to almost 95% accuracy. i. Assignment options: The battles, like in #3. Select any 3 battles that the game

details and explain the tactics used, the reason for the battle, and the outcome (1 paragraph for each of these items, 3 total battles, 9 paragraphs in total). Use examples from the game but do not include assassin’s or Templars into the mix since their conflict is fictional.

ii. Analysis of in-game locations: Similar format to the above. Select a few locations that seem interesting based on in-game data, use the data in the game to summarize what the building was, why it was significant, who built it, why, and when it was finished. Also include how it has been affected by the world since its construction.

2. The Walking Dead Season 1 or 2 a. Not your typical video game with shooting, but a game about managing moral decisions

and relationships, then dealing with the realities of your decisions. i. Assignment Options: You will make life-or-death decisions in the game, so tell me

about some of the major decisions where you had to select whether someone lives or dies, explain your rationale for the decision, and also explain how you felt about the decision afterwards. Select any 3 or more major situations.

3. Games from the “Civilization” series (notably 3, 4, or 5) a. Simulation games give you the opportunity to run a country and attempt to win by

dominating your neighbors through a variety of strategies: you could win by military force, culture, diplomacy, and population growth.

i. Assignment options: Beat the game at least 3 times and use a different strategy for victory each time. Then explain how the game world reacted differently to your strategy each time, explain who you allied with and were enemies with, how the other leaders reacted to your decisions, and how the game was more difficult/easy based on the path you chose for victory.

4. Spec Ops: The Line a. A very dark and gruesome game that is focused on the characters. You will see the main

group start as soldiers and end as something different. i. Assignment options: Finish the game and think about how the game made you feel,

then answer some of the following questions in a 1 page paper. There are many situations where your character does questionable things (the “Willy Pete” scene, the man trapped under the truck, your first encounter with US soldiers, the “hostages or main target” scenario). What does this game try to say about the following conflict: our expectations of being a soldier vs the reality of being a solider? What was the original mission of your main characters? Why do continue to push forward throughout the game despite what your squad is telling you? What does the game mean with the line: “Home? We can’t go home. There’s a line men like us have to cross. If we’re lucky, we do what’s necessary, and then we die”? What happens with the loading screens about halfway through the game? It is even suggested that everything after the helicopter crash is not real and only in Walker’s mind. Do you think this is possible?

5. Bioshock a. Very dark and gruesome first-person shooter that focuses on societies that are crumbling.

i. Assignment options (Bioshock 1): Rapture is an under-the-sea country that makes its own rules. What was the intention of Rapture and what has it actually become? Why did Andrew Ryan, the creator, die the way he did? Did you save or harvest the Little Sisters? How did you feel about the Big Daddies? Were they good guys or bad guys to you? Why did everything go wrong in Rapture and how could a good government have stopped this from happening?

ii. Assignment options (Bioshock Infinite): What was the intention of Columbia and what has it become? How do we see racism happening in Columbia? How is it that racism is able to happen so openly in Columbia? Provide examples of racism and stereotypes that exist inside of Columbia. Is Booker DeWitt a good guy, a bad guy or something in between? How do you feel about him, his dark past, and the events of the game? Think about something in the game that you had an opinion about at the beginning but it changed by the end. Explain how and why this opinion changed. The game doesn’t allow you to interact with Comstock at the end, but what would you have done if you were Booker? Would you have reacted the same way, or would you have done something different? Explain.

The above are a list of great games that have a great deal to say, and they are my highest suggestions. Below I have a list of other games that we could figure out an assignment for as well: Mass Effect 1, 2, or 3 Mirror’s Edge LA Noire The Wolf Among Us Season 1 Journey God of War 1, 2, or 3 Too Human Beyond Good & Evil Shadow of the Colossus Borderlands 2 Batman Arkham City SimCity Skyrim Red Dead Redemption COD: Modern Warfare 1, 2 If you have another suggestion for a game that relates to social studies content (a game that could teach a lesson and not be a mindless fun experience) please come to me and we can figure out how to make an assignment out of it. I am open to your suggestions.